COMMUNITY leaders from the flood-devastated Gulf of Carpentaria have travelled to the Queensland State Parliament to plead the case for recovery and resilience funding.

L-R: Dan McKinlay CEO Burke Shire Council, Deputy Mayor Tonya Murray Burke Shire Council, Mayor Ernie Camp Burke Shire Council, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Robbie Katter State Member for Traeger and Anne Pleash, Mission Consulting Solutions.

Burke Shire Council mayor Ernie Camp, deputy mayor Tonya Murray and CEO Daniel McKinlay travelled over 2100km in a bid to ensure their community’s concerns were front of mind in Brisbane prior to the State Budget in June.

“We know the Gulf of Carpentaria floods every single year, but these events are exceeding all known records and becoming closer together.

“As we have a very small rate base with just over 220 rate payers and a shire that covers over 40,000 sq km, we are asking both State and Federal Governments to partner with us and provide essential funding to help us to improve resilience.

“We need to get started now so we are ready for the next event,” said Mayor Ernie Camp.

The targeted list of projects include the Burke Shire Council and Doomadgee Aboriginal Shire Council joint ask of $75 million for raising crossings and the bridges at the Nicholson and Gregory Rivers.  Raising these bridges and crossings would reduce the isolation time our communities face to weeks, not months.

“We punch above our weight in terms of our input into the regional economy.  We need to ‘Build Back Better’ so we can continue to contribute to the state and national economy through mining, agriculture and tourism,” said Mayor Camp.

The delegation met with the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Ministers, the Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Ministers and the local Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter MP.

“We very much thank the Premier for her time and interest in the recovery efforts on the ground.

“It was also important to pass on our thanks first-hand for the State police, Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation Rangers and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services personnel who helped out during the flood and evacuation of Burketown.  These officers and Rangers were exceptional and greatly assisted our community.

Burke Shire Council representatives also travelled to Canberra in March and met with the Prime Minister, Ministers, Senators and MPs and is hopefully of some positive announcements in the Federal Budget being handed down in May.